This year the Sierra Nevada Region’s annual Dust-Off Tour occurred a month later than usual and visited less desert and more curves, trees, mountains and rivers than our traditional Dust-Off Tour route. One of the benefits of a later tour date was that Monitor Pass, usually closed until sometime in May, was open. Reno, Sparks and North Lake Tahoe club members met at the McDonald’s on Wedge Parkway (Mount Rose Highway), then headed South on 395 and Jack’s Valley Road to meet up with Minden, Gardnerville, Carson City and South Lake Tahoe club members at Mormon Station in Genoa. Following a short driver’s meeting the 13 Porsche tour left Genoa and headed South on Foothill Road into California and onto Diamond Valley Road, then East on CA-89/4, passing through Fredericksburg, Diamond Valley, Markleeville and scars of the 2021 Tamarack Fire. The tour continued down CA-89/4 out of Markleeville along the East Fork of the Carson River and then left CA-4 to take CA-89 over the tight curves of Monitor Pass, down to 395 just below Topaz Lake. Then it was South on 395 to Walker and after a short comfort stop on to Bridgeport, along the West Walker River. From Bridgeport the tour left the traffic of 395 to follow CA-182/NV-338 along the sweeping curves of the East Walker River valley back into Nevada, over Sweetwater Summit and down into the Smith Valley. Leaving NV-338 at the Wellington Cutoff, we arrived in Wellington at our lunch destination the Heyday Inn, where the tour ended. There we met up with Jeff and Sheri Sepahpour and sat down to an excellent Basque style meal of salad, beans, chicken, tri-tip, and pom frites. For those relatively new to our region, Sheri was the club Treasurer several years ago and Jeff and Sheri sponsored our popular (sadly, now defunct) winter Cioppino Feed for 20 years.
